i mean, ultimately, in the end he was running as rick perry, newt gingrich and rick santorum, and he made choices that made things easier in the spring but vastly more complicated in the fall. >> on what ron said, the democrats have become much more assertive on this issue which is a big sea change. on immigration, for example, rahm emanuel himself when he was trying to win democratic majorities counseled centrist democrats, stay away from this issue, because when you bring it up, it rallies conservatives, and puts you on the defensive. what did barack obama do this year? he leaned into the issue. he defied his aides who were saying we're going to lose down scale white voters if you do this, if the african-american president hurts hispanics, it's going to hurt you with white swing voters. he did it anyway and, in fact, the response was quite remarkable. it did lead to an uptick in enthusiasm among hispanics, lots of praise for progressives, and swing voters were kind of glad somebody did something that -- >> [inaudible] >> exactly. and it actually put republicans on the defensive. so